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Halifax appoints first-ever black affairs officer

The regional municipality of Halifax is about to appoint its first ever black affairs officer to work with the city to make sure needs and services are delivered to the area’s African-Nova Scotian community.

The regional municipality of Halifax is about to appoint its first ever black affairs officer to work with the city to make sure needs and services are delivered to the area’s African Nova Scotian community.

“The person has been identified,” said Chris Bryant, acting managing director for government relations and external affairs for the Halifax regional municipality. “She’s keen. We’re keen.”

But Bryant is remaining mum on the identity of the successful candidate and when the city will announce its decision. The only thing he would reveal is that the candidate is an African Nova Scotian.

When the position was announced last summer, the advertisement said that “preference will be given to qualified candidates who are of African descent.”

Controversy had raged last year throughout the black community in Nova Scotia around the appointment of the executive director of the Africville Heritage Trust, a non-profit organization.

Carole Nixon, a white woman and from out of province, had been the executive director.

But after an outcry in which she was accused of not adequately representing Halifax’s African Nova Scotian population, she was eventually let go and replaced by an African Nova Scotian, Sunday Miller.

“We’ve got a good person,” Bryant said. “People will be pleased. But she’s realistic about what she can accomplish. It’s a big city with lots of historic challenges to deal with.

“You don’t have to go back very far to find racial tensions were very high. I think this appointment will deal with some of the issues out there.”

According to Statistics Canada, the municipality of Halifax’s population in 2006 was 369,455. About 3.5 per cent — or 13,270 — were African Nova Scotian.

The African Nova Scotian community dates back to the 1790s when loyalists came to Nova Scotia from the United States. The 200-plus year history, however, has been tinged by racism and hate until recently.

“You can’t point to African Nova Scotian history with pride,” said Bryant. “It was pretty grim. Even up to the 1950s there were segregated schools.”

But perhaps one of the biggest blights of the modern era was the razing by city bulldozers of the Africville community in the 1960s — home to many black Nova Scotians in Halifax.

That action has remained a sore point amongst many in the black community in Halifax. The city’s mayor apologized two years ago for the destruction of Africville.

As part of the settlement and apology worked out between the mayor and the head of the Africville society, it was agreed that the city would create a position in the city to “look after the needs and requirements of African Nova Scotians of Halifax.”

The position is modelled on a similar one in the provincial government.

The mandate of the city’s first ever black affairs officer is “to provide insight and help avoid barriers and improve delivery of service” to African Nova Scotians living in the regional municipality of Halifax, said Bryant.

The Halifax black affairs officer will work closely with the provincial office to co-ordinate efforts. “We want to make sure people feel their needs are being adequately and fairly met.”

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